The present invention relates generally antennas and more specifically to tunable antennas and still more specifically to tunable quad-band antennas for handset applications.
The current trend in mobile communications is in providing more and better services to the subscribers. Modern multi-mode, multi-band mobile phones will give better coverage and provide more data rates. This puts very stringent requirements on the components of the transceivers, including the antennas, which must handle these new features.
A Quad-Band handset radio transceiver is an example of a multi-mode, multi-band system. It covers the following frequency bands and standards:    824-894 MHz;    880-960 MHz;    1710-1880 MHz;    1850-1990 MHz;    GSM850;    EGSM;    GSM 1800; and    PCS 1900.
In order to provide for quad-band antennas the need exists to provide a good match to the transmit and receive modules over more than 15% of their frequency bands. This may not always be achievable without utilizing sophisticated and expensive antennas. Using expensive and sophisticated antennas with consumer handsets is problematic. Therefore, a strong need in the industry exists for quad-band antennas with excellent performance and is cost effective.